Malaysia… Family, Friends, and Food

What more could a person ask for? My family has welcomed me with open and loving arms. The friends I have met here, while new in the friendship stage seem to be the kind that will last a while. And the food, oh… my… God. THE FOOD! People have written books, upon books of Malaysian cuisine and I totally see why. It is delicious. I don't think I have had one thing that hasn't tasted Amazing! While all of the other countries I have visited have been great, there has been no comparison to the food in Malaysia.

But I am getting ahead of myself here, first the family business. Arriving late at night, we took a taxi up to my grandmother's house. I was nervous, excited, anxious, all the emotions you feel when you are about to meet family for basically the first time. The last time I saw her, I was seven and scarcely remember the trip. Although I have been able to pick up more memories as we have continued this trip. I am remembering smells and areas.

Re-meeting my grandmother was great and I will be coming back to Malaysia in January to spend even more time with her. I really have an interest to learn more about my family and just learn the stories and history. It is very interesting. I am taking notes along the way and although I am not sure what I will do with them, I have a feeling I need to write down our history. I am not a history buff and never have really been that interested in it, I am developing this need to know where my family came from. Both sides too, not just my fathers. It is just I am here in Malaysia with my father's family and not a lot of people talk about the history.

We spent a few days in Seremban with grandma and then on Deepavali, we went over to an Auntie's house. Even though she isn't blood related, she might as well be. Our families have grown up together and the older generation is quite connected.

One of the stories I have heard and this is where the connection comes in, is my great-grandfather mysteriously disappeared during the war. My grandmother was about 13 at the time when one day her father went to work and just didn't come back. There were 8 kids in the family. Basically Auntie's family helped out a lot during that time and the two families have been connected ever since.

So for Deepavali, we went over to her house for the afternoon and had our first course of food. Really good too! All kinds of curries and different dishes, so many sweets too! It was good. From there was the real test of family… we went to my Auntie Sheila's house for another party/celebration. Side note on my Auntie Sheila: She is amazing! She is basically a walking angel. My parents have always talked so highly of her and I totally understand why. She has made this visit for me and is so incredibly helpful. You know on television shows or in movies where there is that flawless character that helps in some way? That is her. She is beautiful, inside and out!

She arranged to have a Deepavali celebration so that I could meet even MORE family! I have so many cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and cousins eight times removed, but in Malaysia it doesn't matter. Family means family. If there is a drop in your blood that has a 100^th of the similarity as the drop in my blood, even if it came from some ancient grandparent, it counts. It was great! I met a few cousins that are around my age and we all have a weird memory of the night we met in Malaysia way back in the day. The last time I was here, we had a get together, much like the one on Deepavali, where the parents met up and had the kids meet up and play with each other. We all have some odd memory of that time. Mine is that someone cried, I am not sure who. We spent the night and the girls watched Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13^th, whichever Freddie Krueger is and it scared the crap out of me. Although I tried not to show it, I stayed up and was freaked out by the whole thing. Although looking back, I think that is where my love of horror movies began because you get so caught up in it and you are scared but if you think about it, it is just a movie and a story line.

I met so many people that night; I can barely keep any of the names straight though. I mean, even quizzed today, I wouldn't do so well. My family is big. There are lots and lots of them. But all wonderful and all so incredibly welcoming! It has really convinced me that I need to come back to Malaysia and spend more time with everyone. I am planning on getting a job in July of 2012 and coming back here to work, live, and connect with family.

With meeting family, of course you meet family friends. They have all been wonderful as well! There is such an expat community here in KL that is so interesting. I don't know anywhere else in the world that has this big of an expat community. But it is also so integrated into Malaysia that you never know if you are talking to a Malaysian or an expat. KL has really interesting dynamics and where I have only seen one side of KL, it seems pretty great.

To continue back to food:

My mom will talk about Malaysian food and every once in a while, her, my father, my aunt and my uncle will get in these long discussions about Malaysian food and I have always found them funny. Who can talk about food for that long? Well, I have learned in Peace Corps that you can. Example 1: Two friends and myself staying up until 4 in the morning having hour long conversations about burgers. Example 2: Drooling over wedding pictures of food that someone's friend posted on facebook. Not the wedding or the people, but the food. Example 3: Watching and re-watching Top Chef seasons. I could continue on with so many more examples, but I will leave it at that. And then to come here, the capital of food, I don't know how my parents don't talk about Malaysian food more!

Much like the Malaysian community, the food here has integrated quite well while still maintaining its distinctions. For example, in America, it is a fusion culture. When you are eating Italian food, you are eating American-Italian; same for Mexican, German, Chinese, and lots of others. You can go to the authentic restaurants and eat authentic food but those are few and far between. And even they have a lot more fusion flavors. And it is hard not to, the ingredients are different, the palate of your customer is different. However here, while everyone eats all different foods, the Indian food is authentic Indian food, the Malay food is authentic, and the Chinese food is authentic. Each culture has brought its own flavors and its own cooking style and kept it traditional. Then the best part about it, they have food courts where you can get all of it sent to your table in one spot!

My Uncle Hardev is great! He also likes to go out and has a few places where he is a regular and I know why. We went to a food court and just walked around and everyone ordered a few dishes. Then we all came back and shared, it was delicious! That is also the night I got my satay! I, sadly, haven't had a lot of satay while being here but it is mainly because we have been eating so much other amazing food!

One of my favorite experiences so far has been sitting at the table at my great-aunt's house with my grandma, my Aunt Sheila, my Uncle Hardev and my great-aunt. They got into a discussion about curry. While that may seem trite, let me explain. I love to cook as most of you already know. I have a section dedicated to recipes, so obviously I like to cook. I asked them about possibly teaching me how to cook. I have made curry and I think mine taste pretty good but the curry they make outshines my curry like no one's business. It is mainly the fact that they have been cooking and eating curry since they were born but there is a small part that also has to do with the ingredients they have. They are way fresher!

Anyhow, back to the discussion. They began by having a 20 minute discussion on when to put in the curry powder. Some say mix with water and put in before the chicken, some say put in after the chicken; some say sprinkle on the onions and then add the chicken straight away. The one thing they all agreed upon is to never, under any circumstance, put the curry powder in the oil. This makes sense because you don't usually put any powdered spice in the oil, but it was funny that they agreed upon that point so quickly. Then they began talking about the spices they add and how you can never really know how much of anything because all spices are different. Some cloves are stronger than other cloves and it is all about the smell and fragrance of the cooking.

The smell of the food here has been wonderful too, except for the durian. Durian is a type of fruit that smells really bad. I am not a big fan of it mainly because of the aftertaste that just never leaves but the smell gets to me as well. We had durian ice cream on Deepavali and I swear I was tasting and smelling it a day later!

That is it for now on Malaysia. I have done and seen more than this blog shares but this is what was important to me. I am having a wonderful time with family and can't wait to spend more time with them! Now the three of us are heading up to Penang and then on to Thailand, maybe. We don't really have a concrete plan but it is working itself out as we go along.